EchoStar-21 launch date slips
August 9, 2016
By Chris Forrester
The upcoming August 29th launch of EchoStar’s latest satellite, EchoStar-21, has been postponed to – at best – October 10th.
Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, has apparently delayed the launch because of problems, or a technical delay, with the Proton rocket’s Briz-M booster stage. Russian news agency TASS, in giving the basic news, was vague on the precise reasons for the delay. The launch is scheduled to take place from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
EchoStar-21 has been built by SpaceSystems/Loral and was ordered as TerreStar-2 (and then EchoStar T2) and designed to provide S-band/2 GHz mobile and voice services over Europe for EchoStar Mobile Ltd. It is designed to operate from 0 degrees West of London.